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Building Official Training (BOT) Municipal Grant

Purpose

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) Construction and Codes Licensing Division (CCLD) offers competitive grants each year for qualified municipalities that want to establish training programs to train individuals toward becoming Minnesota certified building officials.

Objective

The BOT Municipal Grant Program provides partial funding and training guidance to competitive grant awardees to establish or continue inclusive training programs in their jurisdiction. Their training program will provide on-the-job training and education under the supervision of the municipality’s Minnesota certified building official. The municipality’s trainee may achieve experience points in building plan review and building inspections per Minnesota Rules 1301.0300 section C (1). The trainee will begin by serving as a construction code inspector as specified in Minnesota Statutes 326B.135 and must achieve the commissioner’s competency criteria by the end of the first year as detailed in Minn. R. 1301.1400. The grant program goal for the trainee is to gain a building official-limited (BO-L) or building official (BO) certification.

Eligibility

To be considered eligible, all applicants must be a qualified municipality. For the BOT grant, “municipality” is defined in Minn. R. 1300.0070 subp. 17 and Minn. Stat. 326B.103 subd. 9 as a city, county or town. To be a qualified municipality:

  1. A municipality must administer and enforce the Minnesota State Building Code by having adopted the code by ordinance in compliance with Minn. Stat. 326B.121 subd. 2(a)(b).

  2. Education and training must be under the supervision of the municipality’s Minnesota certified building official in accordance with Minn. R. 1301.0300 p. C (1) and Minn. R. 1301.1400 subp. 2 G.  A building official – limited can NOT be the training supervisor.

  3. Meet the application deadline.

Application period

The application period for the BOT Grant Program generally opens in July each year and ends at an exact time 35 days later as specified in that years request for proposal (RFP).

Each year a copy of the RFP, proposal application and associated documents are posted at the bottom of this webpage. Details about submitting proposals are contained in the RFP and proposal application.

Award amounts

  • Total funds allocated for each grant cycle will determine the number of grants available for that year.

  • The maximum amount applicants can request is up to $65,000 per grant cycle.

  • Grants that are awarded will be restricted to one BOT grant per municipality to either hire a new trainee or extend the training of an existing BOT grant trainee toward a higher Minnesota certification.

  • The awarded funds are not intended to fully fund the trainee position. Grantee contribution is expected.

First 2024 BOT grant offering

Five grants were awarded in January 2024 as a part of the first offering of the 2024 BOT Municipal Grant Program. Those grants were awarded to:  Moorhead, Sartell, Shakopee, St. Paul and Worthington.

Second 2024 BOT grant offering

Three grants were awarded in April 2024 as a part of the second offering of the 2024 BOT Municipal Grant Program. Those grants were awarded to:  Chaska, La Crescent and West St. Paul.

Informational seminar

A link to an informational seminar recording will be posted below when available.

Questions?

For help with questions about the BOT grant or the application process send emails to bot.dli@state.mn.us.

RFP, proposal application and related materials

When a new grant application period opens there will be links below for those documents. Some of the past grant cycle documents are provided for reference only: